Middle English Literature

Women: Margaret Paston
Women in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had greatly varied lives
not only because of class differences but also because of geographical loca-
tion, marital status, religious involvement, and individual experience. Even
within the smaller group of aristocratic and middle-class women, one needs
to remain aware of differences, especially given the nature of writings about
women from clerical, literary, legal, and historical sources. Many women of
the nobility and the middle strata legally held land, were admitted to guilds
and city franchises to make crafts or sell goods (see “Guilds,” p. 156), and
ran estates and households. However, options for these women tended to
be limited, their existence centering around one or more marriages and sub-
ordinating their lives in many ways to their husbands.
The first records of the Paston family concern Clement Paston, a plowman
who owned some hundred acres of land in the immediate vicinity of Paston
on the northeastern coast of Norfolk. His son, William, was educated at the
Inner Temple and eventually became a judge, purchasing many lands and
buildings. William’s son, John, also bought and administered lands, some
of which he acquired through his marriage to Margaret Mautby, the daugh-
ter of an esquire, in 1440. The majority of the collection of Paston letters
survives because John was away on business so frequently, and John and
Margaret’s children maintained their own collections. These letters, which
begin in 1425 and end soon after 1500, are remarkable for their quantity and
depth in comparison to the few other collections of letters that have survived
from the period even though certain details are undiscoverable.
Margaret Paston is similar to many women of her status but, because of the
Pastons’ substantial local properties and her husband’s business in London
and elsewhere for the bulk of the time they were married, she confidently
and boldly handled their affairs in eastern England. Her letters reveal various
concerns. In the first she is pregnant with John Paston II, who was born
some time before April 15, 1442. The second, about a number of relations,
is while her husband John is sick in London. The third concerns her flight
from Robert Hungerford, Lord Moleyns, and his men. The issue concerned
a disputed manor at Gresham, which John Paston I inherited from his
father William. However, Moleyns claimed it and on February 17, 1448,
occupied it, eventually completely evicting Margaret on January 29, 1449,
and sacking the place. Margaret fled to the neighboring town of Sustead
but then moved on at the beginning of February to Norwich because of
threats that she would be kidnapped. Late that year John took possession

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of another manor owned by Moleyns and again Margaret occupied it until
in January, 1450, Moleyns sent what is claimed to be a thousand armed
men, forcibly turning her out with her twelve companions.
Primary documents and further reading
Barratt, A. (ed.) (1992) Women’s Writing in Middle English. London: Longman.
Goldberg, P. J. P. (ed.) (1995) Women in England, c. 1275–1525: Documentary
Sources. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Jewell, H. M. (1996) Women in Medieval England. Manchester: Manchester Uni-
versity Press.
Mate, M. E. (1999) Women in Medieval English Society. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Richmond, C. (1990) The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: The First Phase.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—— (2000) The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: Endings. Manchester:
Manchester University Press.
British Library MS Additional 43490, fol. 34, and Additional 34888, fols. 8, 24. In N. Davis
(ed.) (1971) Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
I: 216–19, 230–3.
Language: English (Southeast Midland)
Manuscript date: 1441–9
To my ryth reverent and worscheful husbond John Paston:
Ryth reverent and worscheful husbond, I recomau[n]de me to yow,
desyryng hertyly to here of yowre wylfare, thankyng yow for the tokyn
that ye sent me be Edmunde Perys, preyng yow to wete that my modyr
sent to my fadyr
1
to London for a goune cloth of mustyrddevyllers
2
to make
of a goune for me, and he tolde my modyr and me wanne he was comme hom
that he cargeyt
3
yow to bey
4
it aftyr that he were come oute of London.
I pre yow, yf it be not bowt, that ye wyl wechesaf to by it and send yt hom
as sone as ye may, for I have no goune to werre this wyntyr but my blake
and my grene a Lyere,
5
and that ys so comerus that I ham wery to wer yt.
1
Margaret’s mother, Margery, and her second husband Ralph Garneys of Gelderstone
(“Gerlyston”).
2
Muster-de-vilers, a gray woolen cloth, originally from Montivilliers in Normandy.
3
charged.
4
send.
5
cloth of Lierre (Brabant).
Women: Margaret Paston
127

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128
Gender, Sexuality, and Difference
As for the gyrdyl that my fadyr be-hestyt
6
me, I spake to hym ther-of a
lytyl be-fore he yede to London last, and he seyde to me that the faute was
in yow that ye wolde not thynke ther-uppe-on to do mak yt, but I sopose
that ys not so. He seyd yt but for a skeusacion. I pre yow, yf ye dor tak yt
uppe-on yow, that ye wyl weche-safe to do mak yt a-yens
7
ye come hom, for
I hadde never more nede ther-of than I have now, for I ham waxse so fetys
8
that I may not be gyrte in no barre
9
of no gyrdyl that I have but of on.
Elysabet Peverel hath leye seke fifteen or sixteen wekys of the seyetyka,
10
but sche sent my modyr word be Kate that sche xuld come hedyr wanne
God sent tyme, thoou sche xuld be crod
11
in a barwe.
Jon of Dam was here, and my modyr dyskevwyrd me
12
to hym, and he
seyde be hys trouth that he was not gladder of no thyng that he harde thys
towlmonyth than he was ther-of.
13
I may no le[n]ger leve be my crafte; I am
dysscevwyrd of alle men that se me. Of alle odyr thyngys that ye deseyreyd
that I xuld sende yow word of, I have sent yow word of in a letter that I
dede wryte on Ouwyr Ladyis Day laste was.
14
The Holy Trenyté have yow in hese kepyng. Wretyn at Oxnede in ryth
gret hast on the Thrusday next be-fore Seynt Tomas Day.
15
I pre yow that ye wyl were the reyng wyth the emage of Seynt Margrete
that I sent yow for a rememrau[n]se tyl ye come hom. Ye have lefte me
sweche a rememrau[n]se that makyth me to thynke uppe-on yow bothe day
and nyth wanne I wold sclepe.
Yowre ys, M. P.
16
To my rygth worchepful husbond Jhon Paston, dwellyng in the Innere
Temple at London, in hast: Ryth worchipful hosbon, I recomande me to
yow, desyryng hertely to here of your wilfare, thanckyng God of your
a-mendyng of the grete dysese that ye have hade, and I thancke yow for the
6
promised.
7
before.
8
shapely.
9
ornamental bar.
10
sciatica.
11
conveyed.
12
made me known.
13
John Damme was a friend of John Paston’s and assisted the Pastons in legal matters.
14
Probably the Conception, December 8, 1441.
15
The Pastons had a manor at Oxnead; probably the Day of St. Thomas Apostle, December
21, 1441.
16
Margaret Paston.

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letter that ye sent me, for be my trowthe my moder
17
and I were nowth
18
in
hertys es fro the tyme that we woste of your sekenesse tyl we woste verely of
your a-mendyng. My moder hat be-hestyd a-nodyr ymmage of wax of the
weytte
19
of yow to Oyur Lady of Walsyngham, and sche sent four nobelys
to the four orderys of frerys at Norweche to pray for yow, and I have
be-hestyd to gon on pylgreymmays to Walsyngham and to Sent Levenardys
for yow.
20
Be my trowth, I had never so hevy a sesyn as I had fro the tyme
that I woste of your sekenesse tyl I woste of your a-mendyng, and yth
21
myn
hert is in no grete esse, ne nowth xal be tyl I wott that ye ben very hol.
Your fader and myn
22
was dys day sevenyth at Bekelys
23
for a matyr of the
Pryor of Bromholme, and he lay at Gerlyston that nyth and was ther tyl it
was nine of the cloke and the toder day. And I sentte thedyr for a gounne,
and my moder seyde that I xulde non have dens tyl I had be ther a-gen, and
so thei cowde non gete. My fader Garneyss sentte me worde that he xulde
ben here the nexth weke, and myn emme
24
also, and pleyn hem here wyth
herre hawkys, and thei xulde have me hom wyth hem. And, so God help
me, I xal exscusse me of myn goyng dedyr yf I may, for I sopose that I xal
redelyer have tydyngys from yow herre dan I xulde have ther.
I xal sende my moder
25
a tokyn that sche toke me, for I sopose the tyme
is cum that I xulde sendeth here yf I kepe the be-hest that I have made.
I sopose I have tolde yow wat it was. I pray yow hertely that [ye] wol
wochesaf to sende me a letter as hastely as ye may, yf wrytyn be non dysesse
to yow, and that ye wollen wochesaf to sende me worde quowe your sor
dott.
26
Yf I mythe have hade my wylle, I xulde a seyne yow er dys tyme. I
wolde ye wern at hom, yf it were your ese, and your sor myth ben as wyl
lokyth to here as it tys ther ye ben now, lever
27
dan a new gounne, thow it
were of scarlette. I pray yow, yf your sor be hol and so that ye may indure
to ryde, wan my fader com to London, that ye wol askyn leve and com hom
17
I.e., her mother-in-law, Agnes Paston (d. 1479).
18
not.
19
weight.
20
Walsingham was the site of a shrine to the Virgin (see “Lollardy Trials,” p. 59). St. Leonard’s
Priory was also in Norfolk.
21
yet.
22
William Paston (1378–1444) and her stepfather, Garneys.
23
Beccles, Suffolk.
24
uncle.
25
Margery.
26
how your sore does.
27
rather.
Women: Margaret Paston
129

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130
Gender, Sexuality, and Difference
wan the hors xul be sentte hom a-geyn, for I hope ye xulde be kepte as
tenderly herre as ye ben at London.
I may non leyser have to do wrytyn half a quarter so meche as I xulde
seyn to yow yf I myth speke wyth yow. I xal sende yow a-nothyr letter as
hastely as I may. I thanke yow that ye wolde wochesaffe to remember my
gyrdyl, and that ye wolde wryte to me at this tyme, for I sopose the wrytyng
was non esse to yow. All-myth God have yow in hys kepyn and sende yow
helth. Wretyn at Oxenede in ryth grete hast on Sent Mihyllys Evyn.
28
Yourrys, M. Paston
My modyr gretit yow wel and sendyt yow Goddys blyssyng and here, and
sche prayith yow, and I pray yow also, that ye be wel dyetyd of mete and
dryngke, for that is the grettest helpe that ye may have now to your helthe
ward. Your sone
29
faryth wel, blyssyd be God.